Willie Carson

Willie Carson, born 1926, was a freelance photographer in Derry, never dreaming of what was to present itself as his subject matter with the start of the conflict in the North of Ireland. From local photographer he, along with many others, was catapulted onto an international stage. Photographers from all over the world visited and stayed at his home, using his back yard dark room to process their films and his front room to dry their prints. As he recorded the horrors of the so-called ‘troubles’ Carson also continued to capture the life of the city that continued beneath the surface of international headlines and the changes wrought by redevelopment to the streets around his beloved birthplace, the Brandywell.